ice & apples
by ludicrouslylorebound
Summary: The group stops at a motel while on a road trip, and Pearl reminisces on moonshine and dancing while freezing underneath her cheap motel sheets. (Human AU)


**Here's my attempt at fanfiction! I hope it's enjoyable, cause I'm pretty happy with this one. The original version is posted on my tumblr (sharing the same name as my account), and this version is a bit more touched up and edited. Feedback is _always_ appreciated, and constructive criticism of any kind is welcome. Happy reading!**

Pearl wasn't sure how cold it actually was outside, but it had to be cold enough to completely level the temperature of her body. It almost felt like the liquids in her system were turning to slush, slowly solidifying into streams of ice and plunging her into newer levels of deep freeze and frigid.

She curled into her blanket, pulling the sheets to her nose as her teeth began to chatter. It wouldn't be so bad, she thinks, if the motel duvet wasn't as thin as... well, her. The cold blew through her like scissors through paper. Yet, it wasn't affecting Lapis, who slept like a log a few feet to her left. Then again, she could blame that on the generous amount of apple pie moonshine Jasper had brought along with her. Everyone was sleeping like the dead because of it, and were considerably more comfortable than Pearl was. She considered downing the last of the moonshine now; the alcohol could possibly give her a reason to sleep if it failed to generate warmth, but the bottle was stowed in one of the vans outside, where the temperature would surely plummet to unforgiving numbers should she choose to take the risk.

Which she wasn't.

Pearl shifted, and the bed creaked. Behind her, Peridot grumbled, rolling away and pushing Amethyst out of the bed. A resonant thud followed the action, and Amethyst groaned faintly, sluggishly, (her face must've been pressed into the ground) and ceased to move or speak. Peridot sneezed into her pillow before she slipped further away from Pearl, sliding off of the bed. After stumbling over Amethyst, she climbed into the bed Lapis, Jasper, and Garnet occupied, burrowing into Lapis' side. The bed groaned, and the sleeping bodies shifted to the side to accommodate their new guest before settling once again.

A few minutes later, Amethyst groggily rose from the ground, climbing onto Peridot and crawling over her and Lapis with little coordination. She pulled herself over Jasper's broad, hulking shoulder before settling on the woman's face contentedly and knocking out nigh instantaneously. Pearl would laugh if she could feel her lips.

She didn't initially think this little group would work. Jasper and Lapis were awkward and still slightly bitter towards each other, and Peridot's number one hobby was to seclude herself in her electronic devices and jeer at everyone in the vicinity if provoked. Then there was Amethyst, who loved practical jokes and joyriding, who wouldn't take Peridot's shit for anything, and Garnet, stalwart, and quiet, and brilliant, whose silence made Jasper boorish. It couldn't have possibly worked, but Rose had insisted. She was right, of course. Somehow, it managed to function. Creak, groan, sputter, and backfire, but function.

Said woman slept quite possibly the most peacefully out of any of them, curled up with Greg on the futon laid out on the carpet. Upon arriving at the motel, she'd gotten delightfully buzzed on moonshine, sang loudly to music Greg played on his acoustic, and danced well into the cold night before the snow began to settle in and coat the pavement. It's no wonder she smiled in her sleep.

Jasper had been pulled into the dance as well, Pearl remembers. Or rather, Rose had convinced her to dance. Jasper was awkward and hesitant, very unlike her usually confident and almost boisterous demeanor, but Rose simply took it in stride and swung her around. Pearl had danced a bit as well, pulled along by Lapis, but mostly kept to the van with Garnet, watching and clapping and laughing. Clapping to the rhythm Greg created on his guitar, and laughing not at the movements the dancers made, but at the drunken rap battle Amethyst had later challenged Peridot to.

With a sudden, almost painful jolt in her chest, a final warning of where her momentum was pushing her, Pearl careened over the side of the bed and crashed to the floor, shaken awake and frequently blinking her bleary eyes. She's almost fallen asleep, but instead fell off her bed. Brilliant.

Amethyst would've gotten a good laugh out of her misfortune, but she was currently unconscious, drooling on Jasper's forehead, and Pearl didn't find her predicament funny at all. A very lose-lose situation. The ground was unbearably frigid, and the little warmth she found in the mattress and the pitiful excuse of a blanket was yanked away and replaced with an achy kind of discomfort one got from lack of sleep. She coughed, teeth chattering as she weakly tugged at the duvet.

"Pearl?" a substantially distant voice whispered. Pearl groaned a reply. Of course she'd woken someone. Of course she did.

Pearl heard a creaking of springs from the overpopulated bed adjacent and light footsteps approaching. A shadow passed above her and she was suddenly engulfed in warmth as the ground disappeared from underneath her. She blinked at the person lifting her off of the ground.

"Garnet?" Pearl whispered. She didn't reply, simply laying her down onto the mattress and untangling the blanket from her body. To Pearl's shock and unspoken delight, Garnet wordlessly slid into the bed beside her, draping the blanket over them before securely wrapping her arms around Pearl, pulling her to her chest. Pearl shuddered, burrowing deeper into Garnet with a sigh. Garnet shivered.

"You're really cold," she murmured. Pearl offered a weak chuckle, lost in the fabric of Garnet's shirt. She pulled herself up higher, until she was almost level with the dark skinned woman.

"Sorry," she replied quietly. "It's difficult to get warm."

Garnet nodded.

"This motel's shit," she whispered bluntly, smiling when her companion snorted a laugh.

"Did I wake you?" Pearl asked quietly.

"Mm?"

"Everyone's asleep. But you..."

"For a while, I s'pose. Then Amethyst fell out of bed and Jasper rolled onto me."

Pearl recalled Peridot jamming herself into Lapis' side, making room on the crowded mattress and forcing Lapis to move back into Jasper. Subsequently, Jasper would've _had_ to toll onto Garnet. She couldn't imagine the discomfort (and probable pain) of being caught between the bed and Jasper's heavy, muscular build, even for someone as toned and strong as Garnet. The image, however, was amusing. Garnet frowned when Pearl began to chuckle.

"She nearly crushed me," she deadpanned, though without any real negativity.

"She's drunk, as well as unconscious. She couldn't have meant to," Pearl reasoned amiably.

"I was nearly crushed."

"You're okay. Unscathed."

Garnet chuckled.

"I can't say the same for you. You feel like you've been out in the snow."

Idly, and with a small smile, Pearl pressed her feet, frozen like blocks of ice, against Garnet's calves, chuckling when Garnet hissed. She drew her legs back sharply, but only for a moment before shifting them back and pressing them against Pearl's own frigid calves. Pearl practically purred, sinking into the mattress as she tangled her legs in Garnet's.

"You okay?" Garnet asked gently.

"Yes," she sighed. More than okay, really. Garnet was unbelievably warm, and the strong, sturdy arms wrapped around her, embracing her, were a welcome, delightful comfort. Pearl slung an arm over Garnet's waist, gripping the back her shirt. Garnet held her closer, slipping a hand underneath her shirt and rubbing warmth into her back. The room was silent, save for Jasper and Amethyst's combined snoring and Peridot's incoherent mumbling. Pearl's grip on consciousness was waning, and she was dangerously close to sleep.

"Pearl?"

"Yes, Garnet?"

Without a reply, Garnet tilted her head forward and pressed a soft, chaste kiss to Pearl's lips. She gasped sharply, heat rising to her cheeks as she swallowed thickly. Garnet smiled at her.

"Is that okay?"

Words suddenly felt obsolete, useless where there was no need for any to be used. Pearl nodded, exhaling a nervous, breathy chuckle as she leaned forward and pressed her lips against Garnet's, eyes sliding shut as her actions were eagerly reciprocated. Pearl pulled a shaky hand up to rest on Garnet's jaw, tilting her head as she kissed her languidly. A hot, syrupy bliss pooled in Pearl's chest, warming her like fiery alcohol with the tranquil after effects of the first sip of hot chocolate. Thermal and sweet, even as they parted and her companion began peppering her face with kisses. It was undeniably true that Garnet made her happy. She hoped that joy was shared.

"You taste like ice," Garnet murmured elatedly, pressing her forehead against Pearl's and giving her a quick, final kiss. Pearl smiled, closing her eyes and shifting back down to bury her face in the hollow of Garnet's neck, settling into her embrace.

"You taste like apples."


End file.
